MLS -> Outlook + photos -> Blackberry?

My bishopric wants to abandon the use of binders filled with membership records and our custom member info sheets with photos.

The goal is to get all of this information into Outlook and synced with their Blackberries. My bishop is a Church employee and evidently CHQ's method is his inspiration (Exchange?).

Lacking such a server on the ward computer, finding Exchange clones unsuitable propositions, and having unsuccessfully located solutions here, has anyone a solution they would be willing to point me to or detail? (I'm trying to figure out the process myself, but am having difficulty with importing Outlook.)

Thanks for any help!

ParticleMan wrote:My bishopric wants to abandon the use of binders filled with membership records and our custom member info sheets with photos.

The goal is to get all of this information into Outlook and synced with their Blackberries. My bishop is a Church employee and evidently CHQ's method is his inspiration (Exchange?).

Lacking such a server on the ward computer, finding Exchange clones unsuitable propositions, and having unsuccessfully located solutions here, has anyone a solution they would be willing to point me to or detail? (I'm trying to figure out the process myself, but am having difficulty with importing Outlook.)

The Membership vCards with Photos project seems like it would fit your needs when it is done. Review that thread to see if you agree.

ParticleMan wrote:\The goal is to get all of this information into Outlook and synced with their Blackberries. My bishop is a Church employee and evidently CHQ's method is his inspiration (Exchange?).

I think Blackberries do have the capability to sync automatically with Exchange servers. Perhaps they also can be loaded with vCard files exported from Outlook, but I doubt that the process would be fully automatic.

If automatic syncing is the bishopric's expectation, such expectation may need to be managed.

Alan_Brown wrote:The Membership vCards with Photos project seems like it would fit your needs when it is done. Review that thread to see if you agree.

One thing to be careful about is the loose linkage between MLS data and the photos scraped from LUWS. As I understand mkmurray's comments, his process is achieving a fuzzy match between the two sets of data -- which is the best that can be hoped for, because there is no common key to work with.

Also, it presumably makes a difference which of the two MLS vCard exports is used. One is organized with one record per member, the other with one record per household. The LUWS records and photos are organized per household.

boomerbubba wrote:One thing to be careful about is the loose linkage between MLS data and the photos scraped from LUWS. As I understand mkmurray's comments, his process is achieving a fuzzy match between the two sets of data -- which is the best that can be hoped for, because there is no common key to work with.

Correct. With my ward, I only get about 5 households out of a couple hundred that aren't a 100% match on the criteria I have chosen (which is fairly extensive and errors on accuracy's side). I have built UI that shows the user potential matches, and if it's not a 100%, it's usually somewhere above 95%. I could just code it to assume that's good enough, but so far it's only been a few in my tests. I'm distributing my application in a way where I can update the code base and the user automatically downloads the latest code base every few days if there is an upgrade (ClickOnce technology).

boomerbubba wrote:Also, it presumably makes a difference which of the two MLS vCard exports is used. One is organized with one record per member, the other with one record per household. The LUWS records and photos are organized per household.

Yes, that's a good point. I'll need to update my documentation and perhaps error handling for this. Thanks.

Not knowing Blackberries, the first question I have is can one add data to it without it going to the Exchange Server it's connected to?

Blackberry has a number of ways to load data:

Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES): Server software that runs next to the Exchange server and syncs calendars, contacts and email to the blackberry handheld wirelessly. Expensive and dependent on Lotus or Exchange.

Blackberry Internet Services (BIS): Blackberry service that downloads mail from POP/IMAP/ActiveSync to the blackberry handheld wirelessly. Free. Does not sync other information like contacts or calendar.

Blackberry Desktop: Desktop application that can sync mail CLIENT programs like OUTLOOK to the blackberry handheld over a USB or Bluetooth connection. Free. Syncs calendar, contacts etc.

I think your bishop is probably connected to the church's Blackberry Enterprise Server, and is getting all his info wirelessly. BES is not an option for you unless you have a few $K sitting around and feel like setting up a mail server.

You could load a member directory by having your users import them into their mail client with Blackberry Desktop.

Blackberrys that are connected to BES automatically sync back to the server, and don't always play nicely with Blackberry Desktop.

In my case, I would be reluctant to import the ward directory to my blackberry because that data would then be loaded into our corporate email system automatically.

BIS + Blackberry desktop would work fine. You would still need to make sure that your bishopric does not inadvertently upload the ward list to their other accounts.

Good luck.

The Earl

The Earl wrote:In my case, I would be reluctant to import the ward directory to my blackberry because that data would then be loaded into our corporate email system automatically.

That puts Blackberry users generally in the same boat as users of Android and Palm Pre smartphones, which also upload their contacts to third-party servers. This practice would seem to violate the policy guidance provided on this forum.

On a different matter, the discussion above of possible use of mkmurray's process presupposes that the photos have been uploaded to LUWS in the first place. I suspect what the bishopric has in mind here does not involve the website at all.

From the original post, I gather that the intent is just to use a local copy of Outlook -- or is it Outlook Express, a wholly different application, which really uses the Windows Address Book? -- as the master repository for photos and contacts. I think that application provides for the user to import one photo at a time interactively.

My question about that architecture is this: How does anyone propose to sync the local Outlook [Express] contacts database with MLS, while managing updates and deletes along with new records? I suppose it would be easy to just wipe out the contacts database and reload it from the MLS export. But then all the photos would need to be imported again, one at a time.

boomerbubba wrote:From the original post, I gather that the intent is just to use a local copy of Outlook -- or is it Outlook Express, a wholly different application, which really uses the Windows Address Book? -- as the master repository for photos and contacts. I think that application provides for the user to import one photo at a time interactively.

From my tests, Outlook Express (or Windows Mail on Vista) can import a single .vcf file with many vCard entries in it. However, it doesn't import any embedded photos (although that's not to say that you can't attach photos after the fact). Outlook can handle importing a vCard with an embedded photo, but it cannot do more than the first vCard entry in a single .vcf file. This is why my project includes an Outlook plugin to handle this deficiency.

boomerbubba wrote:

The Earl wrote:In my case, I would be reluctant to import the ward directory to my blackberry because that data would then be loaded into our corporate email system automatically.

That puts Blackberry users generally in the same boat as users of Android and Palm Pre smartphones, which also upload their contacts to third-party servers. This practice would seem to violate the policy guidance provided on this forum.

Note that The Earl said "in my case." It's not accurate to then conclude that "that puts Blackberry users generally in the same boat...".

Many Blackberry users can choose to use the Blackberry Desktop to synchronize with Outlook (or similar apps), and never involve third-party servers. If they are required to sync with a corporate server, they might not have that option, but users who simply sync at home with Outlook can do so without violating policy.

Alan_Brown wrote:Note that The Earl said "in my case." It's not accurate to then conclude that "that puts Blackberry users generally in the same boat...".

Many Blackberry users can choose to use the Blackberry Desktop to synchronize with Outlook (or similar apps), and never involve third-party servers. If they are required to sync with a corporate server, they might not have that option, but users who simply sync at home with Outlook can do so without violating policy.

I did specify 'in my case', but blackberry users connected to a Blackberry Enterprise Server are in the same boat unless they disable the automatic contact sync. I cannot find a way to mark contacts on my phone so that it does not get replicated back to the corporate mail system.

Alan's later statement about non-BES users is correct.

Thanks
The Earl

Alan_Brown wrote:
Many Blackberry users can choose to use the Blackberry Desktop to synchronize with Outlook (or similar apps), and never involve third-party servers. If they are required to sync with a corporate server, they might not have that option, but users who simply sync at home with Outlook can do so without violating policy.

You're right. I overgeneralized. It would depend on the user's situation. Only some subset of Blackberry users, such as The Earl, would have a policy problem. I do believe a substantial part of Blackberry's market share is in the corporate world. The tight integration with institutional servers is why corporate IT departments like the platform. Lots of Blackberry devices out there are not even personally owned, but employer-owned.

It may be that there will be future solutions for the other platforms I mentioned (Android and Palm Pre) that avoid syncing to a third-party server. In the long run, their users also may have options to avoid that.

boomerbubba wrote:That puts Blackberry users generally in the same boat as users of Android and Palm Pre smartphones, which also upload their contacts to third-party servers. This practice would seem to violate the policy guidance provided on this forum.
....

I have not found a smart phone yet that is good about keeping personal and company data separate. The best I have found is the gmail app for blackberry. If you turn off the syncing of the address book, gmail will still look up email addresses stored in google, but those people don't show up in your address book.

I think any attempt to integrate a ward list onto a smart phone that is syncing corporate contacts is going to be problematic. I think we need separate applications, or sophisticated masking in the built in address books. I think a separate app is more likely, but I have not found a standalone address book for blackberry.

Thanks
The Earl

The Earl wrote:I have not found a smart phone yet that is good about keeping personal and company data separate. The best I have found is the gmail app for blackberry. If you turn off the syncing of the address book, gmail will still look up email addresses stored in google, but those people don't show up in your address book.

The problem with Gmail contacts is that it is apparently forbidden for church purposes -- as far as importing contacts exported from MLS or LUWS goes.

I am a Gmail/Android user, and I very much like the syncing of data for all my ordinary contacts. Gmail does support different contact groups, which can be very useful for separately managing contacts for personal/business/church/family etc. But managing that is best done from the Gmail web interface, which requires all the contacts to be on Google's server.

It is possible to select only certain groups for syncing to an Android phone. What is lacking is the ability to manage all that directly on my Android -- import contacts directly and immediately assign them to a group. The out-of-the-box Contacts app doesn't allow that. But the hooks are there for a third-party developer to build such an app. I like to think that one is in the works.

I have no feel for how open the Blackberry platform is to such custom development.

I thought one of the strengths of the Palm Pre is that it would work with separate contact lists. However, it's backup feature is problematic.

The Earl wrote:Blackberry has a number of ways to load data:
Blackberry Desktop: Desktop application that can sync mail CLIENT programs like OUTLOOK to the blackberry handheld over a USB or Bluetooth connection. Free. Syncs calendar, contacts etc.

Thanks for the tips! It sounds like Blackberry Desktop is the way I will try, when I get there... but first, even before dealing with the dilemma of photos, I need contacts in Outlook to sync! My attempts so far at this have failed triumphantly. So...

* How do you import a .csv into Outlook along with its custom fields (from a custom report in MLS)?

* There aren't enough fields provided to map to when importing (an .xls)?

* Perhaps somebody could tweak http://homepage.mac.com/phrogz/CSV2vCard_v2.html ?

* mkmurray: in the vCard project, will it be possible to scrape a local folder for photos as well as the LUWS?

Thanks for your patience.

ParticleMan wrote:* mkmurray: in the vCard project, will it be possible to scrape a local folder for photos as well as the LUWS?

Perhaps, it definitely wasn't on my personal roadmap. The one thing that could be a problem is that there wouldn't be enough meta data associated with the pictures to know which household they belong to. On LUWS, I match up the phone number, address, full names (all household members), and even email addresses (well maybe not email addresses) to be sure I have the right household vCard and the right photo. You could argue that names enough would be sufficient, but I'm not sure how comfortable with that little of matching criteria.

ParticleMan wrote:... but first, even before dealing with the dilemma of photos, I need contacts in Outlook to sync! ... How do you import a .csv into Outlook along with its custom fields (from a custom report in MLS)?

As for the source data, I assume you would not use a custom report but one of the standard MLS export formats. See the wiki article. The first design question you have to answer from the bishopric is: Do they want a set of contacts structured as one record per member, or as one record per family? That will shape your choice of export file, and possibly require a little programming.

Regarding the software, I gather you are using Outlook, not Outlook Express? What version? Have you looked at the Microsoft articles here? I don't have much hands-on experience importing to Outlook, but clearly there is an interactive step where you have to map the fields in your csv file to the fields Outlook can handle.

As far as I can tell, Microsoft does not advertise that Outlook can "sync" such a data import derived from an external source. Rather, the user loads the records as a file and then deals with any duplicates, etc. This is a major challenge, because a given export from MLS typically will have additions, revisions and deletions compared to another export taken from MLS a week or so earlier.

I have been assuming that in the long run, you would be using a dedicated copy of Outlook -- likley on the clerk's PC -- to do this, rather that using some person's individual copy. That way, at least you don't have a problem comingling the MLS contacts with someone's personal contacts. Right?

In that case, the easiest way to do a batch update is just to delete everything and reimport all contacts anew from the MLS export file.

The problem is, that does not handle the photos, which of course will not be in the MLS export. In theory, some external application could be developed to do this, maintaining a persistent store of pictures that have been mapped with human verification to unique keys -- such as the "Indiv ID" or "HofH ID" data fields from the MLS export -- so the photos can be merged with the MLS records automatically.

From the research mkmurray has reported, I would venture to say that such a custom application could be written, loading vCard records into Outlook. (I don't blame him for being reluctant to volunteer, however. That is quite a bit of scope creep from the project he has described elsewhere.)

ParticleMan wrote:How do you import a .csv into Outlook along with its custom fields (from a custom report in MLS)?

When importing a CSV into Outlook contacts, it helps tremendously if the field names in your CSV file match what Outlook is expecting. You can try to find the field names, but I have always found it easiest to just do a quick export from Outlook, then examine the names.

As you edit the CSV file produced by MLS (either an export, or saved from a custom report), the names won't match. So you would change "Preferred Name" to "Name" and "Phone 1" to "Home Phone", etc. Then you don't have to go through the tedious process of mapping fields each time -- you can just save the modified header row with the Outlook field names and then reuse it and paste it on top of the header row each time you export from MLS.

I haven't done any VBA programming with Outlook for years, but after perusing Microsoft's documentation for Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007, it looks like it would be pretty straightforward to write code to add pictures to Outlook contacts after all the other fields are imported.

A more time consuming task would be building a database application to store links to all the photos by some unique key in the the MLS export data, such as the "Indiv ID" or "HofH ID" element. One could take shortcuts on the user interface and just manually create the picture filenames using the unique key or maintain a spreadsheet -- similar at an abstract level to the scripts here-- but that would make it more error-prone and harder to hand off the process to end users.

In any case, this process still would not be out-of-the-box, end-to-end, automated syncing, which seems to be the bishopric's expectation here.

boomerbubba wrote:As for the source data, I assume you would not use a custom report but one of the standard MLS export formats.
. . .
Do they want a set of contacts structured as one record per member, or as one record per family?
. . .
As far as I can tell, Microsoft does not advertise that Outlook can "sync" such a data import derived from an external source.

We'll be using Outlook 2007 on the ward computer (XP) when we upgrade to 2007. Until then, I'm hammering out the process on my computer. The guidelines contained in the wiki will indeed be followed.

Because the standard MLS exports do not contain all the desired fields, a custom report is necessary, as the goal is to duplicate and extend the information contained in individual membership records (it's for a YSA ward), which extended information would most likely be inputted into Outlook--after a member record is received, is exported and converted to a .vcf and imported.

So far, I have found and modified a shell script to split a multi-record .vcf into individual .vcf's, but it needs refinement. So, if it is possible to create a .vcf, with custom fields and hopefully a photo, that can be imported into Outlook 2007, all with (win32 ports of) GNU utils, then I can probably figure out the parsing, but I would need to find code to convert a JPG to VCF PHOTO data.

That's too bad Outlook can't sync a contact, but it's okay because MLS says when membership data has changed, which would alert when a record needs to be exported, converted, and imported again (or just edited manually).

ParticleMan wrote:...but I would need to find code to convert a JPG to VCF PHOTO data.

I have C# code for this if you are interested. I won't have access to that code though for a few days.

It's up to you, but to me that process sounds like an administrative nightmare with a large amount of duplicated manual work and opportunity for error.

I still don't really understand what you are describing. Do you plan to create custom fields in Outlook that would be populated by keying data into the Outlook screen interface? Is a custom field allowed? Or does Outlook have standard fields that MLS can't populate, but the user would key their content into the Outlook? Or do you mean you will create, populate and export custom fields in MLS via a custom report? If you do a custom report from MLS, I think its output format would be csv, not vcf.

Edit: I see that Outlook does provide for user-defined fields.

If you are prepared to do programming, Microsoft exposes quite a rich software object to drive Outlook by most any language, which would enable a program to update the contacts field-by-field with as much granular control as you want. A programmer could effectively build an automated sync process that would handle new records, revised records and deleted records. The overall task obviously would entail some complexity, but it appears doable. A weakness would be a lack of unique keys. Are you capturing DOB? A combination of DOB and full name is pretty reliable for linking programatically.

The scope of this idea turns out to be bigger than just merging photos onto a Blackberry. It seems wise to test several proof-of-concept matters before proceeding too far down this development path:

• On your personal test machine, interactively create a few test records in Outlook, complete with photos and any user-defined fields. Then install the free Blackberry Desktop utility and verify that all this data does sync to the bishopric's Blackberry devices.
• Make sure the bishopric members are informed of the policy guidance against uploading MLS data to third-party servers, so each of them can test whether his own Blackberry can be configured not to propagate this data to his employer's enterprise server. The bishop then can judge whether this plan complies with Church policy.
• Secure the approval of the stake president, who must approve any special software installations on the ward computer, to okay the installation of Outlook, Blackberry Desktop and any conversion utilities you might need. (BTW, to comply with pollcy you also should configure Outlook and other utilities to keep the contacts data files on a flash drive that is locked away when not in use, rather than the hard disk.)

Because a "No" on any of these issues could be a hard stop, better to find out before investing a lot of development time.

boomerbubba wrote:

• Secure the approval of the stake president, who must approve any special software installations on the ward computer, to okay the installation of Outlook, Blackberry Desktop and any conversion utilities you might need. (BTW, to comply with pollcy you also should configure Outlook and other utilities to keep the contacts data files on a flash drive that is locked away when not in use, rather than the hard disk.)

Installing Blackberry Desktop on the ward computer may not help more than 1 person. If the software is anything like how syncing works with the iPhone, you can only sync one device to the software.

mkmurray wrote:Installing Blackberry Desktop on the ward computer may not help more than 1 person. If the software is anything like how syncing works with the iPhone, you can only sync one device to the software.

That is one more proof-of-concept test that ought to be run.

Also, does Blackberry Desktop do a one-way sync between Outlook and the Blackberry, or a two-way sync?

boomerbubba wrote:Secure the approval of the stake president, who must approve any special software installations on the ward computer, to okay the installation of Outlook, Blackberry Desktop and any conversion utilities you might need.

Since Outlook is payware, it will be required for the ward to obtain the necessary licensing to place it on the ward computer. The 2009 Policy and Guidelines states "Privately owned software should not be installed on Church computers."

RussellHltn wrote:Since Outlook is payware, it will be required for the ward to obtain the necessary licensing to place it on the ward computer. The 2009 Policy and Guidelines states "Privately owned software should not be installed on Church computers."

Yes, the ward would have to pay for it out of Budget funds. My point is that the stake president still would have to approve it, just has he would have to approve any freeware installed on the ward's PC (except those few applications that are pre-approved such as OpenOffice).

boomerbubba wrote:Yes, the ward would have to pay for it out of Budget funds. My point is that the stake president still would have to approve it, just has he would have to approve any freeware installed on the ward's PC (except those few applications that are pre-approved such as OpenOffice).

I see nothing against donating software to the ward. The guidelines say "properly licensed". I had it in my mind that it had to be owned by the ward. I don't see it as part of the current policy, but I'd feel much more comfortable if it was. Otherwise it might be difficult to show that it is "properly licensed".

I agree with the Stake President's approval. My point was that there is a significant cost as well. Something in the ballpark of $80. (The version chosen will affect the cost - but it can also affect the development.)

And I agree with the idea of getting approval for everything before starting development. I'm just adding another factor.

RussellHltn wrote:I see nothing against donating software to the ward. ...

I agree with the Stake President's approval. My point was that there is a significant cost as well. Something in the ballpark of $80. (The version chosen will affect the cost - but it can also affect the development.)

In the case at hand, I suspect that -- especially since this project is the bishop's brainchild -- he could find $80 in the ward budget to fund it. Getting the stake president's approval may (or may not) be a more significant barrier.

It had never occurred to me that there could be an in-kind donation of commercial software. I really don't know what the policy is about in-kind donations of any type of property to a unit. If there is a general policy about that issue, it is probably covered in the handbook, not just the letter defining computer policy. That computer policy does prohibit donation of computers.

boomerbubba wrote:

mkmurray wrote:Installing Blackberry Desktop on the ward computer may not help more than 1 person. If the software is anything like how syncing works with the iPhone, you can only sync one device to the software.

That is one more proof-of-concept test that ought to be run.

Also, does Blackberry Desktop do a one-way sync between Outlook and the Blackberry, or a two-way sync?

I talked to a guy in my office today who uses Outlook and Blackberry Desktop at home. He tells me these particular concerns should not be a problem. According to him, the desktop utility can be configured to sync either one-way or two-way, and the same instance of Blackberry Desktop can service multiple Blackberry devices. (He and his wife use Blackberries and share a copy of Outlook.)

Still worth testing, but sounds like it should work.

The biggest technical problem remaining is how to sync Outlook with MLS. The more I think of it, the more I would favor a solution that employs the Outlook programming object to do the adds and revisions field-by-field, and deletes contact-by-contact. This is so straightforward it could be driven by a script, because there really is no significant user interface required.

Edit: Of course, there still is a significant question about whether the bishopric's Blackberries can be configured not to sync to their employer enterprise servers, as The Earl warned about above. And approval by the stake president is still required for installing the two software products on the clerk's PC.

For the photos, I would not worry about adding them programmatically. Just use the Outlook user interface to import them once for each member as the photos become available.

Well, I did it. I can now convert an MLS-exported vCard of many vCards to individual vCards, each with a photo, which cards can be imported into Outlook 2007 (individually). I did it by writing a bash script (on Mac OS X's BSD), which is fine because my bishop has a Mac. Brief attempts to run it on GNU/win32 revealed that much modification will be necessary.

Yes, it would be ideal to do this in VBA in Outlook, but I don't know VBA. But a plug-in to mass-import vCards into Outlook would still be very handy.

While I haven't as yet done the Blackberry phase, from what has been said, Blackberry Desktop should do the trick. Otherwise, for the extended membership record info, saving an MLS-exported .csv of a custom report as an .xls with password protection should take care of the rest of the bishopric's desires.

Thanks for everyone's input! I'll post the script when it's approved (as if anyone were interested.

ParticleMan wrote:But a plug-in to mass-import vCards into Outlook would still be very handy.

Which I have ready, and will announce shortly on the thread I have been keeping up. Although, it's likely not to work on a Mac because of it's dependencies on .NET and the Visual Studio Tools for Office.

To avoid the hassel of creating vCards and going thru all that trouble, you can use an iPhone - either 3G or 3Gs - and you can purchase an "App" called iStake or iWard for about $5 which pulls the membership info from the LUWS (iStake pulls all wards - iWard pulls just the one Ward) and you can easily view members' info. Theoretically, you keep your Ward MLS up to date, which automatically keeps LUWS up to date, thus, you have the latest info on your iPhone (which is far more flexible and usable than a Blackberry - my opinion). I thought we weren't supposed to keep paper copies of membership records any more, since we have MLS?

cwhanderson wrote:...you can use an iPhone ...(which is far more flexible and usable than a Blackberry - my opinion).

The iPhone is indeed cool. But this thread deals with BlackBerry devices. Many people with a BlackBerry don't have the option of using an iPhone, either because of cost, or because of corporate policies that dictate BlackBerry use. Others actually prefer the BlackBerry.

cwhanderson wrote:I thought we weren't supposed to keep paper copies of membership records any more, since we have MLS?

There's no policy against keeping paper copies. Some wards find it very useful. Others have chosen not to keep paper copies. It's the bishop's call.

cwhanderson wrote:To avoid the hassel of creating vCards and going thru all that trouble, you can use an iPhone - either 3G or 3Gs - and you can purchase an "App" called iStake or iWard for about $5 which pulls the membership info from the LUWS ...

That wouldn't fill the need anyway, because the task at hand is to populate the ward leaders' handheld devices with data from MLS plus photos. That data includes a lot of detail not available on LUWS.

Also, what Alan_Brown said.

cwhanderson wrote:To avoid the hassel of creating vCards and going thru all that trouble...

As boomerbubba mentioned, photos is a key part of the discussion and proposed solutions. Also, if you have need of more info than what LUWS provides for each member, then MLS vCard exports would be required.

We did this two years ago for the bishopric.

1. Create a .pst contact folder for outlook
2. export the MLS data to CSV and format it for your needs
3. inport the MLS contact information into the PST file
4. manually add the photo to each contact
5. sync with blackberry, windows mobile, etc.

Tada. you now have all your ward contacts (including photos) on your mobile phone, and they will also sync with exchange, outlook, or BlackBerry Desktop as a backup of your data.

stevengolson wrote:We did this two years ago for the bishopric.

1. Create a .pst contact folder for outlook
2. export the MLS data to CSV and format it for your needs
3. inport the MLS contact information into the PST file
4. manually add the photo to each contact
5. sync with blackberry, windows mobile, etc.

Tada. you now have all your ward contacts (including photos) on your mobile phone, and they will also sync with exchange, outlook, or BlackBerry Desktop as a backup of your data.

Part of my goal was to make the process of vCard creation as automatic as possible, including getting photos into vCards and identifying individuals to add or delete in Outlook prior to syncing.

My current solution (a shell script and a selection of Cygwin files), identifies:
1. Missing photos
2. Orphaned photos
3. Duplicate vCards
4. New vCards
5. Old vCards

Identifying new and old vCards is possible only when the bulk MLS vCard file or a photo has been changed after an initial run of the program.

The ultimate solution, I think, would be for MLS to support adding photos to vCards as well as creating individual vCards for those whose records either moved into the ward after a specified date, or (if MLS keeps track of this) those whose records have been modified after a certain date.